TEHRAN – Palestinian Authority (PA) Envoy to the UN Riyadh Mansour said that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member states demonstrated their common views on the issue of Palestine during the NAM summit in Tehran, reported FARS news agency Saturday. Speaking to reporters here Saturday morning, Mansour said that Palestinian refugees' return to their homeland was one of the most important issues in the NAM summit on which member states reached a consensus and it was one of the goals of the NAM meeting. Referring to the presence of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority President, in the NAM summit, Mansour said that it was for the first ever time that president of Palestinian Authority attend such a meeting and his presence was a emphasis on the recognition of Palestine. Earlier, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat underlined that the 16th heads-of-state summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran and the speeches delivered by the NAM leaders indicated that the Palestinian issue sets a priority for the world. “The Tehran summit showed that Palestine is still the prime issue, indicating that we can take a common decision," Erekat told reporters on the sidelines of the NAM summit on Thursday. “We are happy that all (the speeches of the NAM leaders) were focused on Palestine and I hope that the representatives of the Arab and Muslim world will speak for the national interests of Palestine," he added. In his inauguration speech of the NAM summit Thursday, Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei asked participants in the NAM summit to pay special attention to the Palestinian issue, and called on the American backers of the Israeli regime to accept Iran's proposal for a referendum in the Palestinian lands to determine the country's fate. The Leader reminded the Zionists' bloody occupation of Palestine over 6 decades ago, and blamed the Zionist regime for waging various wars, massacre and state-sponsored terrorism in the last decades. – Agencies
